Originally, Inaho had planned to wait for Ryosuke to dodge, then use the Clone Technique, hide his real body, and have the real one seize another opening to hit Ryosuke with the Great Fireball Technique—that was where his chance lay.
He hadn't expected Ryosuke to cleave his Great Fireball in two. Shocked, he even forgot to cast his clone.
Ryosuke using a clone to probe him now was redundant—but it showed how cautious Ryosuke had become.
When the clone rushed him and launched an attack, Inaho readied himself to disperse it.
A clone usually only had a tenth of the original's strength.
Even if he couldn't beat Ryosuke himself, crushing a clone should be easy.
He drove a punch forward.
Unexpectedly, the clone slipped past the blow and counterattacked.
Inaho's face changed.
This clone had some bite. He got serious and pressed the offensive.
Even going all out, he didn't erase it in a single exchange.
So Ryosuke had poured a lot of chakra into this clone.
Before long, Inaho did smash the clone; it burst into white mist and vanished.
Seeing Inaho defeat his clone, Ryosuke knew this was the real body.
He didn't rush in, simply stood and watched.
Inaho likewise held back. He couldn't think of any route to victory.
The technique he took pride in had been split apart by the man's bare hand.
Taijutsu? Forget it.
Illusions? He'd already tried that—Ryosuke's Sharingan had more ocular power; his genjutsu wouldn't take.
And Ryosuke now outclassed him across the board and was fighting cautiously on top of that; landing a sneak attack would be anything but easy.
He sighed. "I concede."
A bit of a pity—this loss was even worse than the last, and he hadn't even forced Ryosuke to show his full hand.
Ryosuke, meanwhile, had a rough read on his own level.
Beating a jōnin was easy. If he opened four gates and quadrupled his power, he should be able to test himself against Kage-class opponents.
That was just a feeling—whether he could or not, he wasn't actually sure.
Too bad there was no chance to find a Kage-class opponent to try.
In the village, the Kage-class were clearly the Third Hokage and Danzō.
Challenging either of them would be asking to get served.
In that case, if not an outsider, then… the clan head.
As head of the Uchiha, Fugaku should be Kage-class—or at least close. And he'd awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan besides.
Even if Fugaku wouldn't use the Mangekyō in a spar, he'd still be a worthy test.
Ryosuke looked at Inaho, who still stood there.
"If there's nothing else, clear out."
He didn't want someone spectating right next to his training.
Inaho hesitated, then said, "Ryosuke, will you teach me the Eight Gates?"
He wasn't dejected at losing; mostly, he was excited.
And of course, he wanted to grow stronger.
Ryosuke shot him a glance—so he wanted to learn the Eight Gates.
If it were some other overwhelmingly destructive technique, Ryosuke might have thought twice about teaching it.
But for the Eight Gates, there was no need to hesitate.
If you could learn it, that was your own ability.
And Inaho was a clansman.
"I can teach you. Whether you learn it is on you."
Joy flickered across Inaho's face. "Thanks."
Ryosuke began explaining.
"Let me tell you what the Eight Gates are."
"The Eight Gates are a taijutsu that forcibly releases the body's chakra limiters to gain temporary power."
"In the network of chakra pathways, the eight points that restrain and regulate chakra are the Opening Gate, Rest Gate, Life Gate, Pain Gate, Limit Gate, View Gate, Shock Gate, and Death Gate."
"These eight impose limits on your chakra output. The Eight Gates technique forces chakra past those limits, drawing out power several times—dozens of times—greater than your base."
He looked at Inaho. "Got it?"
Inaho nodded. "Got it."
It sounded simple—open the limiter, release chakra, gain power.
"Since you understand, I'll demonstrate once. Use your Sharingan to track my chakra flow and find the position of the first gate—the Opening Gate."
He clenched his fists, refined chakra, and rammed it into the Opening Gate on the left side of his head. It burst open in an instant.
Veins bulged across his brow; his skin darkened.
A fierce aura poured off him.
"See clearly?"
Inaho had pushed his ocular power to the limit, tracing every step. It was… pretty straightforward.
"I saw it."
"Then the next step is closing it," Ryosuke continued.
"That's simple—just stop refining chakra and the Opening Gate closes on its own."
He cut off the flow; his aura eased, the veins faded, his skin tone returned to normal.
Watching how simple the first gate looked in practice, Inaho couldn't help getting excited.
"And the later gates? Ryosuke, tell me about those too."
Ryosuke shot him a look. "Learn the first gate first. Do what I just did—hands-on."
Inaho didn't press for the later gates. He did as told.
He refined chakra and drove it at the Opening Gate.
With a small amount, the gate didn't budge.
He increased the output; the gate cracked the tiniest bit—
And a spike of agony lanced through his skull.
"It hurts!"
He immediately cut the chakra.
He stared, incredulous. How could it hurt that much?
Just the memory of that pain made him balk at continuing Eight Gates training.
Compared to other training—ninjutsu, genjutsu—some kinds were hard, but with repetition and his talent (and his Sharingan) they weren't so bad.
But this Eight Gates training made his scalp prickle.
No wonder Elder Hachidai told him not to pin hopes on this art.
The difficulty really was that high—and this was only the first gate.